Rumor has it that the new government is more sympathetic to Panathinaikos and will probably help them locate a site and provide them with some of the money. I still don’t understand why the government has to help Panathinaikos to find a suitable site and help them build their stadium. If the owner of the team was serious about building this stadium he would have gotten his shit together and done it just like Kokalis did. Panathinaikos is a big club with a lot of financial backing and if they really wanted to they could have had a new stadium by now.

Panathinaikos is a big club with a lot of financial backing and if they really wanted to they could have had a new stadium by now.

They could have a new stadium by now but there was no coordinated action from their side. However, the limitations, obstacles and endless procrastination by the state have become suspicious, at the least. So, it's not only an issue of a tight spending policy or having Shum as a coach, but also an issue of whether the state really wants to allow Panathinaikos to build a new stadium.

As for Karaiskaki, IMO, Kokkalis found the Greek Olympic Committee in a deadlock and could easily "manipulate" them into getting what he wanted. If he hadn't proposed the rebuilding of Karaiskaki, it would probably have been abandoned. Perhaps you are also not aware that Olympiakos had plans to build a 100.000-seat stadium at Rendis (where their training camp now exists) since the 1970s.

This is not to underestimate Kokkalis at any way. But it's not fair for Panathinaikos to compare two dissimilar cases.

I agree with what you are saying but, I just don’t see why the government would not want Panathinaikos or any other soccer club in Greece to build themselves a new stadium provided they had the money to do it. From what I have understood so far there has been a problem with the Leoforos proposal because there are too many residential building around the existing stadium and the space is extremely tight.....Also, I have heard from a number of Panathinaikos fans that another reason why construction of the new stadium has not started is because Panathinaikos is been stingy with their money trying to get the government to foot a good chunk of the money.....

AFAIK, Panathinaikos has considered asking the state for a loan, which will of course be repaid. I think that this loan would be approximately 30% of the total cost of the Leoforos stadium, at about 20 million Euro. This is the only detailed plan that has ever come out regarding the financing of a new ground for Panathinaikos. Everything else was just ideas, thoughts and, er, wishful thinking

Regarding the proposals, Leoforos was too difficult to be realised due to the dense residential area that surrounds it. The Goudi proposal currently crashes against the interests (or so they say) of the 4 municipalities that are adjacent to the proposed area, not against the interests of the Municipality of Athens and other authorities to which the area actually belongs! Finally, the considerations of Elaionas and Elliniko (at the site of the old airport) were scrapped by Panathinaikos as being too far from the city centre, although at some point they had been presented as final (especially Elliniko, around summer of 2001).

Votanikos is a different way to say Eleonas.
It is about the same area but in a different neighborhood. So this proposal isn’t something new. In fact this is the proposal of the municipality of Athens for more than 4 years now.
Everybody must understand that at the time speaking the new stadium is a matter of Panathinaikos and the Greek Government , and that no mayor can do anything about it whether they like it or not.

Apari, thank you for the explanation. I guess we will all just have to wait & see which of the 2 locations is chosen by Panathinaikos.

I do have a question though..do you think the recent crowd violence between Panionios & Olympiakos will hinder the progress of not only Panathinaikos' new stadium but also AEK's aswell?

I ask this because as I understand it the councils surrounding both locations (Elliniko & Goudi) for Panathinaikos and Nea Filadelfia for AEK have either taken action (in AEK's case) or are threatening to take legal action (in Panathinaikos' case) against the proposed stradiums.

I wouldn't think so, although no-one can ever be sure about the mindstate of those governing sport in Greece. What happened at Panionios may provide an extra argument to those initially opposed to Panathinaikos and AEK constructing new stadia, but the heavy penatlies imposed on both clubs may very well serve as a counter-argument supporting the ensurance of safety at football matches.

Regarding the Votanikos-Goudi dilemma, I don't think that Votanikos was ever proposed or even considered as a viable solution. IMO it was probably some kind of informal discussion which was then magnified by the press to such an extent that it is now considered as a second equally favorable solution to Goudi. I don't think it stands.

During the last days I've read a lot about the measures of the 3 proposed areas of the new Panathinaikos stadium (i.e. 120,000 sq meters in Votanikos).
I'm wondering if anyone in the forum knows the measure of the area that the Karaiskaki stadium occupies.
I think that this information will help us to understand what it can be built in each one of the 3 proposed areas.

Nobody gave an answer to my previous question. Anyway...
If you are more interested about the proposed area in Votanikos you can have a closer look to these two maps. The location of the stadium will be on Agiou Polycarpou Street.

The Votaniko area or Eleonas (depending on who you talk to) has become the favoured location for the Panathiniakos "family". This location seems to me to be the most logical from all aspects including location, accessibility, trading opportunity and size of stadium.

The Panathinaikos Family wants not only a football stadium but also an athletic center to be built in Votaniko's area.
So there is a strong possibility to build also a new Indoor Arena for Basketball and Voleyball.
Thiw would be fantastic and ideal!!
Imagine...
Panathinaikos Stadium 50.000 capacity
Panathinaikos Indoor Arena 10.000 capacity
+ cafeterias,shopping centre,cinemas...